Pittsburgh Penguins

Sidney Crosby's goal scoring resurgence
April 6, 2017, 2:45 PM ET [6 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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Tonight begins the Penguins last road trip of the 2016-17 regular season. It starts in New Jersey and will wind its way to both Toronto and New York. The Penguins Captain is closing in on another impressive trophy to put on his mantle.

Sidney Crosby has 43 goals on the year. With three games remaining, he is the overwhelming favorite to land the Rocket Richard Trophy. If I were to tell you a few years ago that Crosby would be in the driver’s seat at the end of the season to win this award nobody would believe me. I wouldn’t believe me. Sid has done a marvelous job of finding his scoring touch again. Something that wasn’t guaranteed to happen given how things were going.

source: imgur.com

This is the first time in a while that he has found himself scoring goals at even-strength above his career average. Also, his 2.66 goals per 60 at 5v4 is a personal best during this timeframe. When you combine Crosby’s 5v5 and 5v4 scoring prowess this year the result is a Rocket Richard worthy season.

Auston Matthews(!) is currently in second place with 39 goals. He has the best chance of catching Crosby, but with Guentzel and Sheary both in the lineup I don’t like his odds. Brad Marchand also has 39 goals, but this will probably be the time the Department of Player Safety finally catches up to him and he will miss at least a game. This effectively ends Marchand’s pursuit of the Rocket Richard.

We are one day removed from finding out about Kris Letang’s surgery. There have been some stats circulating around the internet which are showing the Penguins record with and without Letang. Those should probably be disregarded. While the Penguins record without Letang this year has been impressive it is also misleading to take at its face value. Letang’s last game of the year was on February 21st and since then the Penguins have only earned one victory over a team who is currently holding down a playoff spot. That victory was on Tuesday against Columbus. The schedule without Letang has been littered with teams that won’t be making the playoffs this year. The victories were nice and helped secure a playoff spot, but they aren’t all that meaningful of a comparison when Washington is the team that will likely be waiting for the team in the second round if they’re fortunate enough to get there.

Evgeni Malkin was back at practice, but they did not roll out the red carpet for him


Evgeni Malkin and Olli Maatta were at practice in non-contact jerseys. Trevor Daley returned to practice as a full participant along with Bryan Rust. Daley is a game time decision and he will likely play. Who is going to come out of the lineup? It is looking like Mark Streit will be the casualty.

Trevor Daley has had a rough go of things this year. He played above his head during the playoffs last year which helped the Penguins win a championship. This regular season saw regression back to his career norms of being a below average possession player who can chip in offensively from time to time. Daley is going to have to find the same gear he had last spring if the Penguins are going to overcome the Letang injury. Tonight is the first opportunity for him to do that.